My guest this week is renowned trainer, author, and 2006 Swedish National Champion, GM Johan Hellsten. Johan is best known for his excellent book/Chessable course, Mastering Chess Strategy, and its successors Mastering Opening Strategy, and Mastering Endgame Strategy. These courses are highly regarded by chess trainers and students alike, and are packed with educational puzzles. In our conversation, we get into the origins of these voluminous projects, plus Johan answers a ton of chess improvement related questions from listeners to the podcast. Lastly, Johan tells some fun stories from his time playing on the Swedish Olympiad Team, and shares the names of some authors that were formative in his own chess development. Please read on for timestamps and relevant links.
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0:00- How was Johan influenced by the work of legendary trainer, IM Mark Dvoretsky?
Mentioned:Sergey Dolmatov, GM Artur Yusupov, 64 Chess Magazine
08:25- What is the vision behind Mastering Chess Strategy and Johan’s Mastering series?
15:00- What are some books one could do that aren’t as challenging as Johan’s fantastic books?
Mentioned: Simple Chess by Michael Stean, Winning Chess Strategies by Yasser Seirawan (also on Chessable) , Silman’s Reassess Your Chess Workbook
Episode 272- “Positional Puzzle Book Championship” with Neal Bruce
Shane Taulbut, chess books,, GM Arthur Yusupov, IM Mark Dvoretsky, GM Yasser Seirawan, John Nunn’s Understanding Chess Move by Move
18:45- How does Johan find so many instructive positions?
Mentioned: Follow Chess App, Chessbomb, Chess24.com, Mark Crowther’s The Week in Chess
29:00- Patreon mailbag question from Neal Bruce! “Should players at different rating levels approach Johan’s books differently?”
39:00- Patreon mailbag question: “In what order should one read Johan’s courses/books?”
Mentioned: Chess for Educators by Karel van Delft
45:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. In addition to GM Johan Hellsten’s series, one can find tons of courses on all phases of the chess game, check out what is new here: New Chess Courses Online - For All Levels in all - Chessable.com
46:00- If you don’t have a coach what is the best way to identify your weaknesses that are holding you back?
Mentioned: GM Stellan Brynell
1:00:00- Johan discusses how club players can choose openings based on their styles.
1:06:00- What are Johan’s favorite game collection books? Do we need to study their books or just play through a great player’s games on a computer?
Mentioned: GM Mickey Adams, GM Viswanthan Anand, GM Mark Taimanov, GM Svetozar Gligoric, GM Bent Larsen, GM Mikhail Botvinnik, GM Bobby Fischer
1:14:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What are the chess cultures like in Sweden and Ecaudor?” (Johan lives in Ecuador.)
Mentioned: GM Stellan Brynell, GM Johnny Hector, GM Jan Timman, GM Julio Granda Zuniga, IM Greg Shahade, GM Johan Hellsten’s YouTube Lectures, GM Wesley So
1:22:00- Patreon mailbag question: “How was Johan influenced by legendary Swedish player Ulf Andersson?”
Mentioned: GM Viktor Korchnoi, GM David Anton, Hellsten-GM Viktor Kupreichik (1996), GM Andrey Kovalev, Hellsten-Kovalev 1996
1:35:00- Thanks so much to GM Hellsten for sharing his wisdom and stories!
You can reach him and check out his Chess.com Series here
https://www.chess.com/member/jhellsten
And be sure to get his Chessable courses here:
https://www.chessable.com/author/jhellsten2/
You can find the same material in book form, here.